Definition of the term prospecting file
A prospecting file or lead file is a list of people who might buy products or services . These people are called prospects.
A file can contain at least one list of potential customers to contact, or several lists of potential customers, classified according to different criteria that vary depending on the product or service that the company sells.
In a prospect list, each prospect is associated with relevant qualification criteria to identify people's current, past or future interest in the service or product in question, as well as their purchase intention (near, distant, short or long term, etc.).
Examples of criteria to qualify a prospect in a B-to-B file:
surname, name
age
sex,
company name
company website address,
company postal address,
job title,
responsibility within the company,
business email address,
business phone number,
the financial situation of the company,
the company's position in its market,
the competitors,
the needs of the company, etc.
Before the arrival of new communication and information technologies, the file was compiled by hand, or even typed with a typewriter, and stored on paper.
Then came the Office suite and Excel prospecting dashboard, which improved the creation of a customer database, but were difficult to update and prone to many errors.
Today, thanks to SaaS (online operating) software and the democratization of Internet use, prospecting files can be created, rented, purchased, updated and enriched in a computerized and, in some cases, automated way.
The objectives of a prospecting dossier
The term sales prospecting archive or customer archive is often used to uae phone number list describe the sales process:
The computerized database of qualified contacts is actually used by salespeople for prospecting, that is, to contact people who have been identified as having sales potential;
It should be emphasized that the need for the service or product has been expressed and identified to these contacts, through a marketing campaign or previous contact (cold call, online form, SMS, etc.), and it is this point that makes the difference.
The criteria that define an effective prospect list
The rule is to maintain the quality of your prospecting database, especially with regard to all of the following points:
updated contact information,
no duplicates in the file
absence of incorrect data,
reliable sources of information from which to draw data,
qualification criteria relevant to your business,
rigorous traceability and history of exchanges with each contact (calls, meetings, etc.),
a file accessible to all company staff, even when they are away from the office,
an archive where employees can update data in real time,
separation of qualified prospects, unqualified leads and customers into separate files,
segmentation based on the stage of the purchasing process.
For a prospecting list to be effective and legal , it must also have been compiled in accordance with the rules of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): the emphasis is on the protection of personal data and respect for the privacy of individuals.
